Antibiotics Expert

Japanese scientists have found that it is possible to eradicate Helicobacter pylori infections by using antibiotics.

H. pylori can cause stomach ulcers and, in extreme cases, gastric cancer. Seiji Shiota and Yoshio Yamaoka from Oita University , Japan and Baylor College of Medicine , Texas, respectively, gave H. pylori antibiotics to patients with early gastric cancer after surgical resection and were followed up for three years.

It was found that patients who received antibiotic treatment had a significantly lower risk of developing gastric cancer, confirming the importance of careful management of H. pylori.
However, certain populations (e.g. India and Thailand) have a high prevalence of H. pylori infection but a low incidence of gastric cancer.

There definitely needs to be an overhaul of health care as we know it.

For one thing, doctors have too much control over our lives. If we get an infected cut, we have to go to the doctor and get a prescription for antibiotics. If we get a sinus infection, we have to go the doctor and get a prescription for antibiotics. If we get a sore throat or ear infection, we have to go to the doctor and get a prescription.

Kids get sick. They get sick a lot. In fact, during the first three years of life, the average child gets six to eight viral upper respiratory track infections or colds per year. This is nature’s way of building up the immune system. As a pediatrician, I see dozens of children every day due to illness. One myth that I commonly come across is that antibiotics cure all illnesses.

Doctors warn patients not to jump so quickly to ask for an antibiotic. With a bacterial infection, a portion of the bacteria might be resistant to the antibiotic. Then, that portion can multiply and mutate, and perhaps be tough to kill off.

Doctors say that’s in part because any time we use an antibiotic, it puts pressure on a bacteria to develop resistance. And, with the continued use of antibiotics in society, whether it’s in medicine form, or in the foods that we eat such as livestock where antibiotics are often used in the animals, there is more and more pressure to develop that resistance.

A team of scientists in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands are reporting disturbing evidence that soil microbes have become progressively more resistant to antibiotics over the last 60 years. Surprisingly, this trend continues despite apparent more stringent rules on use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture, and improved sewage treatment technology that broadly improves water quality in surrounding environments. Their report appears in ACS’ bi-weekly journal Environmental Science and Technology.